The invention relates to an organ storage solution, which is suitable for organ preservation.
In the explantation of organs from a host body, for example, a kidney, heart, liver, or pancreas, ischemic organic damage occurs regularly and cannot be controlled as yet. The extent of damage depends on the so-called "warm ischemia time." This time is defined as the period between the clamping off of the supplying artery and the start of cooling of the isolated organs, whether by cold storage alone or by cold storage in combination with perfusion with a preservation solution. The so-called UW solution or the Euro-Collins solution, for example, is already being used as a preservation solution.
A cause of the ischemic damage is the continuation of energy-utilizing metabolic reactions in the suddenly ischemic tissue. After aerobic glycolysis ceases, anaerobic glycolysis occurs as the energy-supplying reaction. As a result, tissue-damaging metabolites, such as lactic acid, form, which because of their acidic nature lower cell pH. If circulation is available, the metabolites are carried away and detoxified in the liver (Cori cycle).
Avoidance of ischemic damage is essential for the immediate resumption of organ function after explantation in the recipient's body or in the perfusion apparatus.
Another field of application of organ preservation is the use of slaughterhouse organs as substitutes for animal experiments. To perform such studies on slaughterhouse organs, the organ must be preserved immediately after slaughter. These organs in which the studies are to be performed must be kept as long as possible in a physiological environment with unaltered metabolic properties.